-Down to Earth Low returns and high risks from alternative crops among reasons past efforts failed, says report The Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP) has recommended promotion of crop diversification, favouring oilseed crops amid the global inflation in oilseeds and vegetable oils prices. Global inflation creates a structural risk as vegetable oils account for about half of India’s agricultural import, subsequently raising the country’s agri-import bill, the commission wrote in its...

Every year in the month of either February or March, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) announces the notified MGNREGA wage rates (i.e., notified daily wage rates for MGNREGA workers) for various states and Union Territories (UTs) for the upcoming financial year. The MGNREGA rates are notified every year based on the increase in Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL). Like the previous years, in 2021 too, experts and civil...

-The Telegraph ‘Rough and tough’ alert to private hospitals Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said in no uncertain terms that her government would act tough against private healthcare establishments who refuse to accept Swasthya Sathi cards of the healthcare scheme she had launched ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls. “State government officials have been asked to act rough and tough if any hospital refuses Swasthya Sathi cards. If anyone refuses Swasthya Sathi cards, the...

-Hindustan Times Although the controversial law was passed in 2019, the rules on how it is to be implemented have not been framed yet, and the government has said this will happen once the pandemic ends. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will be enforced as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic gets over, Union home minister Amit Shah said in West Bengal on Thursday, accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state of...

-Down to Earth Schools, Anganwadis find it difficult to meet nutritional needs of children, mothers, as a result Schools and Anganwadi centres (AWC) are finding it difficult to effectively run programmes that address the nutritional needs of children and mothers. This is because the government has not revised costing norms for mid-day meals despite inflation, teachers and activists said. There is an urgent need to re-evaluate the cooking cost of programmes such as...